Liam Payne joined One Direction aged just 16 after appearing on TV’s The X Factor with the group going on to become one of the biggest in the world. The band recorded their last performance together in 2016, after a hugely successful five-and-a-half years – 14 UK Top 10 singles, four Number 1 albums on the Billboard 200, record-breaking tours and dozens of awards – before going on indefinite hiatus.
In 2017 Liam released his debut solo single ‘Strip That Down’ featuring Quavo, which has sold a huge 11.5 million copies worldwide and has been streamed over 1.8 billion times. Other smash hit singles followed including ‘Polaroid’ which sold three million copies, ‘Familiar’ with J Balvin which spent 16 weeks on the UK singles charts and has been streamed over 232 million times on Spotify alone, and ‘For You’, his UK Top 10 hit and duet with Rita Ora which was featured on the ‘Fifty Shades Freed’ official soundtrack and spent 17 weeks in the UK chart. In October 2019, Liam released the Christmas song ‘All I Want (For Christmas)’ – his first ever festive track. He released his eagerly-anticipated debut album, ‘LP1’, in December 2019 on Capitol Records.
Since then, he released the singles ‘Midnight’ with Grammy-nominated artist Alesso and ‘Naughty List’ in collaboration with Dixie D’Amelio. He also launched a series of online shows with ticketing platform Veeps. The series was started during the pandemic lockdown as a way for Liam to continue to engage with his fans all around the world – maintaining human connection while also creating a fun and intimate experience. The unique live shows proved to be a huge hit with Liam’s fans with more than 150,000 viewers tuning in – equivalent to three stadium shows.
He also performed at the BAFTAS with a special world-first AR performance of ‘Midnight’ and co-hosted his own football/music podcast, FIFA PlayOn. He also continues to support and work with The Trussell Trust and UNICEF. In August 2021, he released his latest single ‘Sunshine’. The song appears in the animated film from 20th Century Studios and Locksmith Animation, ‘Ron’s Gone Wrong’. Platinum-selling Liam has sold more than 23 million singles and over three million albums as a solo artist. He has been streamed nearly 6 billion times.
